Good Friends (and Enemies) Are Hard to Find
For the true do-it-yourself (DIY) gamer, the work is not done in merely creating an interesting army: now that army needs a background story that fits with the 40K milieu developed by Games Workshop. Allies and enemies are a huge component of that background, or "fluff." The expressions "One is judged by the company one keeps" and "One is known by the quality of one's enemies" has special relevance for a DIY army.

In creating the Fighting Tigers, I have used actual games I've played (and plenty of poetic license) as the basis of my chapter's background story. While I could have made up everything from scratch, it felt more authentic and palpable to use actual victories and defeats, friendships and rivalries in crafting the Tigers' "fluff." As years have gone by and my real-life opponents changed, so too has the Tigers fluff. Read along, and I think you'll see what I mean. 

Allies
Though the Tigers are unswervingly loyal to the Emperor and beloved by the people they defend, they have few friends outside the Regulus star system, the Tigers' home. Here are descriptions of some of their allies.

Keric Quicbrand's Great Company:
The Space Wolves answered the Tigers' call for help in rebuilding after their losses against the Warband Bloodcomet (the forerunners of the Saracens) and the two Chapters have been fast friends ever since. The Tigers and Wolves have often fought alongside each other, with the firepower of the former a perfect complement to the assault capabilities of the latter. In particular, the Great Company of Keric Quicbrand has had extensive contact with the Tigers, even conducting regular "training sessions" with them. When the Tigers were off-world during the Blood Deserts of Auros IX Campaign, the Space Wolves defended Veda against the Dark Eldar.

Vedic Tiger Warriors: Created by Jennifer Burdoo
The Third War for Armageddon required (not without some confrontation) the first call-up of an Imperial Guard regiment from Veda. The Vedic Tiger Warriors were at first unskilled, but were ably led by seasoned foreign officers and backed by first-rate elite units. They first served on Armageddon, under the watchful eye of Commissar Acosta, then went to Cadia to deal with the 13th Black Crusade. Recently, they were reassigned to deal with Tyranid incursions within the Segmentum Tempestus.  Want to read more about the Vedic Tiger Warriors?

Ebon Leopards of Kente:
Hailing from the hot and arid eighth planet of the Regulus system, the Kenteans are a fierce and honorable people whose warriors make excellent Imperial Guardsmen. Eschewing tanks and other vehicles, each regiment of the Ebon Leopards relies instead on infantry-carried heavy weapons. Want to read more about the Ebon Leopards of Kente?

Inquisitor Varman Kumar:
Kumar is a mysterious figure known to traverse time and space with seemingly equal ease. It was Kumar who alerted the Imperium to the enslavement of Veda by the Ozone Scorpions, which led directly to the formation of the Fighting Tigers. Kumar has often worked alongside the Tigers throughout their long history; unbeknownst to them, he recently facilitated Shamshir Talatra’s split from the Tigers and the founding of the Fearful Symmetry. Want to read more about Varman Kumar?

Other Allies:
In the distant past, the Tigers made pacts of convenience with a few minor Eldar Craftworlds, but those alliances have long-since ended. The Tigers fought several campaigns alongside the Mordian DCXIV (aka the “Panthers Purple”), and have also been aided by units of Ogryns (the “Iron Lions”) as well as a Ratling sharpshooter unit known as “Roary Tolman’s Tomcats.” Want to read more about these other allies?
 

Enemies
The Fighting Tigers have gone to war against almost every alien race in the galaxy, especially Orks, and have time and again battled the forces of Chaos. Recently, however, the Tigers have grown estranged from the Imperium itself, and consider almost all of its forces as hostile.

The Imperium:
The Fighting Tigers remain fiercely loyal to the Emperor, but have always had a tense relationship with many elements of the Imperium. Veda is geographically and culturally isolated from the rest of the empire, and differences were established early on. For example, the Ecclesiarchy expressed concern when the Tigers “went native” and assimilated Vedic culture, customs, and religion shortly after taking control of the planet from the Ozone Scorpions. The Tigers claim that the High Lords of Terra questioned their loyalty during the Badab War, and ordered them to stay out of the conflict. Imperial aid was not forthcoming during the Shindering of the Templars, but in the aftermath, the Ultramarines assumed rigid—and harsh—command of the shattered Tigers under Second Company Captain Lucius Tiberius Britannicus.

More recently, the Tigers have feuded with the Dark Angels and Blood Angels over suspicious activities and perceived slights. Knowledge of—and zealous opposition to—the Tigers’ tradition of using cloning and female Space Marines has grown throughout the Imperial forces, and several of them have called for the Tigers’ eradication. Raja Khandar Madu has looked askance at the bureaucratic inefficiency, institutionalized brutality, and lack of foresight and cohesiveness that permeates the crumbling Imperium, and has stopped the sending of tithes—including geneseed. 

A proclamation of independence from the Imperium and open war between it and the Tigers have not yet occurred, but it is only a matter of time….   

Kabal of the Ozone Scorpions:
Syryx Lynatharr and the Kabal of the Ozone Scorpions lost a power struggle against Asdrubael Vect and the Kabal of the Black Heart and fled Commorragh. Settling on Veda, the Dark Eldar found it ridiculously easily to enslave the primitive humans of the Regulus Secundus system and exploit its great natural wealth. In their first action as a new Space Marine Chapter, the Fighting Tigers defeated the Ozone Scorpions, captured Syryx Lynatharr, and imprisoned him, alive and conscious, in a stasis chamber. Eight hundred years later, during the attack on Veda by the Warband Bloodcomet (see the Saracens), Lynatharr’s stasis chamber was damaged and he managed to escape.

The Scorpions fled into the Maelstrom, where radiation mutated their appearance and made them sensitive to sunlight. Eluding the Tigers and rival Dark Eldar, the Scorpions carry out seemingly senseless operations, much of which (including their return to Veda, countered by Ferin Ironhammer) involve the recovery of ancient figurines that may possess vast power. Want to read more about the Ozone Scorpions?

Sho-T BigHed: Created by Patrick Eibel
Despite his comical name (a contraction of the Ork insult "Shorty Big-Head"), the Blood Axe Warboss Sho-T is no laughing matter. His raids against Regulus and other star systems are so ruthless and well organized that at first they were believed to be the work of Ghazghull Thraka. Sho-T is his own master and cunningly makes use of looted Imperial gear, numerous squadrons of swift and deadly Ork vehicles, and masses of infantry to overwhelm the enemy. 

The Tigers have fought Sho-T on numerous occasions, notably during the Blood Deserts of Auros IX Campaign. Sho-T won that contest, but the Tigers are preparing to contest him for the planet again…. 

Fearful Symmetry:
Shamshir Talatra was Raja alongside Khandar Madu before his recklessness resulted in disaster against the Tau. Removed from office and expelled from the Tigers, Shamshir—guided by Inquisitor Varman Kumar—eventually learned to become a better leader and built up the Fearful Symmetry, an army of Space Marine renegades aided by daemonic allies. 

Though Shamshir remains loyal to the Emperor and bears no animosity towards the Tigers (indeed, he fought to save Veda from a Tyranid attack), he is considered an outlaw and a traitor, and has defended himself several times from the Tigers and the Imperium. 

Other Enemies:
A popular legend, never confirmed by Imperial sources, says the Fighting Tigers and the Astral Claws were created simultaneously using related geneseed. The Astral Claws became infamous for their treachery against the Imperium during the Badab War and survive (in a limited fashion) as the Red Corsairs. The Tigers claim that during the Badab War, they petitioned the High Lords of Terra to be sent against these traitors, but that the High Lords, fearing the Tigers may have been touched by the madness that claimed Lufgt Huron and his Astral Claws, ordered them to stay out of the war. Whether or not the shared origin story is actually true, the Fighting Tigers believe it and have vowed vengeance against the Claws/Corsairs for bringing disgrace upon their lineage.  

Eight hundred years after the founding of the Fighting Tigers, Chapter Master Hermann Weiss and his Knights Templar (descended from the Black Templars geneseed) succumbed to promises of power and respect from agents of Khorne. Weiss renamed himself Baalzephon Zgorch and led his traitor Templars, now known as the Saracens, into the Maelstrom (this event--and the subsequent attack on Veda--became known as "The Shindering of the Templars"). 

While his Saracens established a new base, Zgorch recruited a large number of Chaos Space Marines and organized them into the Warband Bloodcomet. Using them, he lured the elderly Shiva Nagordarika into a trap that, in the end, wiped out more than 80% of the Fighting Tigers, crippled Shiva, and killed millions of peasant warriors and non-combatants on Veda and neighboring planets. The Warband Bloodcomet was destroyed but Zgorch lived on, his Saracens intact, ready to unleash Khorne’s wrath again. 

Related Pages
Ebon Leopards of Kente
Vedic Tiger Warriors
Reconciliation  Fighting Tigers vs. Dark Angels (fiction)
Fearful Symmetry
Kabal of the Ozone Scorpions 
Blood Deserts of Auros IX: Tigers vs. Sho-T
 

Last updated: July 2010
 

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